those end handrails are definately weird. It's the stanchions - perhaps the unit Kato modeled this off of had some odd ball stanchions added as part of a rebuild.
The stanchions are straight. They seem to sit at an angle when installed but straighten out just fine when I pushed on them at the base.
It looks to me like the stanchions are tapered...they are straight on the inside, but flare out toward the bottom on the outside. Look at the CN version (the one in the pic with the BN unit) to see what I mean. I have seen prototype handrails that replicate this, I just cannot remember where. The pics I've seen thus far of the BN SD40-2's don't appear to have this characteristic, but they aren't closeup photos.
